Charities could win a £250,000 house

Two charities are in the running to win a brand new house worth £250,000 after being nominated in a national competition.

Treetops Hospice in Risley and YMCA Derbyshire, which has a headquarters in Ilkeston, are going head-to-head with a Leicester charity in a bid to win a prize of £6,000 and go forward to the next round.

The competition was organised by housing developer Persimmon Homes, which is celebrating its 40th birthday this year.

It has offered one of its homes as the grand prize in the national competition.

A spokesman for the firm said they had sifted through ‘scores’ of suggestions to finally settle on the final three.

Managing director of the north midlands branch Paul Hurst said: “It was a difficult decision to select the three charities that we deemed to be most deserving of this funding.